Come Anticipate Friday Night Lights with me

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/friday_night_lights/

It's like a serious Varsity Blues - Billy Bob is Jon Voight minus the fascism, plenty of football-player partying, this team actually has more than one black player. Everything set up to be a nice little high-school football movie.

Except it's directed by Peter Berg. Is that the kiss of death or what?

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Thursday, 12 August 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

As in based on the book? Fifteen years after the fact, isn't it? I'd prefer a written sequel looking at the school now.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 12 August 2004 17:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I've never read the book, high-school football has always freaked me out (esp. in Texas)

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Thursday, 12 August 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

they should've called it friday nightlights!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 12 August 2004 20:27 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

i just got back from a preview screening, here at the university of pennsylvania. [the books writer, buzz bissinger, is a graduate of penn - they are showing it again during our homecoming next weekend!]

im not really crazy about football movies [except wildcats] because they're generally not well done or its some other story played out against the backdrop of football, but this was excellent. the book is awesome, the cinematography is beautiful [especially how they managed to intersperse actual footage throughout it], tim mcgraw is fucking CREEPY and most of all, the soundtrack is really really well done [scored by explosions in the sky?!].

go see this.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 7 October 2004 02:42 (twenty-one years ago)

how did i miss this thread?

i actually played Texas high school football (i was a very small cornerback) in Houston.

the previews for this blow my mind. the astrodome (everyone's dream was to play in the astrodome in the playoffs, we never got that far), the whole football on friday night feel, both playing and watching, everything about it gives me a major nostalgia rush.

it's also fun to see that the teams are the real texas teams. i recognize a lot of the jerseys.

it's strange that it looks like Odessa is portrayed as some sort of underdog? i haven't read the book, and i dont know the story, but we always considered them Big Dogs. (they are, if i remember correctly, famous for inventive trick plays)

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 7 October 2004 02:59 (twenty-one years ago)

i dont think they're portrayed as underdogs at all. permian is expected to win, and that is emphasized by all the authority figures throughout the film [all who wear state championship rings of their own].

there's a few gaps between the book and the film, but ill wait until others have seen it/want to chime in.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 7 October 2004 03:08 (twenty-one years ago)

it looks very unrealistic, football-wise, to me, but enough of that. more impt: is it at all about the inner drama and sociological stuff, or just a big ol' kick-ass football movie? i'm hoping the former but fear the latter, especially since it's directed by peter 'no one really actually likes me or thinks i'm talented' berg

― Begs2Differ (Begs2Differ), Thursday, 7 October 2004 03:12 (twenty-one years ago)

what's the story on peter berg? who is he?

― ryan (ryan), Thursday, 7 October 2004 03:15 (twenty-one years ago)

i think that was one of the strengths of this adaptation: they stuck to a lot of the sociological/inner drama stuff that made the book so compelling.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 7 October 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.fridaynightlightsmovie.com/

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 7 October 2004 03:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Did anyone read the coverstory in today's USA Today? MILLIONS being spent on football scoreboards alone in the South.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Thursday, 7 October 2004 03:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i liked it! the actual on-the-field football stuff was actually the weakest part of the movie i thought (i wanted more of a sense of the dynamics b/w the players & how they changed over the season... also the whole playoffs section seemed to be done on powerpoint) but it was good!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:08 (twenty-one years ago)

going to see it tomorrow night for free. good to see it's gotten some reccomendations.

― lemin (lemin), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I'd still prefer a look at the real schools/players now as opposed to then! (Which prompts me to ask, is the film set in 1987-88 or the present day?)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:38 (twenty-one years ago)

88!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:42 (twenty-one years ago)

Ah! Okay, my feelings for the film are greatly improved already. Must be an interesting period piece in ways (is Bon Jovi on the soundtrack like it was in the book?).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:45 (twenty-one years ago)

i'm trying to remember! besides the explosions in the sky there was some PE and some other 88-vintage rap!

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I actually like the idea that the white dudes are listening to Explosions and things like Lift to Experience rather than Bon Jovi. "Have you heard Hairway to Steven, man?"

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:48 (twenty-one years ago)

whoa, is there a lift to experience song in the movie?

― lemin (lemin), Thursday, 7 October 2004 04:56 (twenty-one years ago)

the scoring drove me nuts throughout the film until i figured out midway that it was explosions in the sky. nice touch of them to use a texas band. they used "i wanna be your dog" in one of the game scenes. it was surprising because you'd expect that song to be in some slacker/gen-x/whatever kind of movie, not some big budget film about football. it made me cheer, and i bet none of the audience [all penn students mind you] knew who it was. im not a music snob but it was kind of nice having a soundtrack that wasnt all cheesy 80's stuff.

a reason the on-field stuff may not have been as spectacular as hoped: actual footage of the games in 1988 is interspersed throughout the footage they shot for the movie. in order to seamlessly intertwine the two, they might have not been able to get as exciting with their shots as they wanted. they did a really great job on merging it, because there was only one point where i noticed differences.

what did everyone think about how dry the film looked? all the colors were fairly contrasty and washed out. normally this would drive me nuts but once again, it worked in this film. it made it feel like an old film.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Thursday, 7 October 2004 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

it wasn't so much the actual shots that bothered me, as much as i felt that berg sort of lost the on-field thread (sorry i just woke up and that probably makes no sense)

as for the look, i thought it was nice, pretty post-soderbergh

― s1ocki (slutsky), Thursday, 7 October 2004 14:01 (twenty-one years ago)

scored by explosions in the sky?!

ok, count me in then

― kephm, Thursday, 7 October 2004 14:10 (twenty-one years ago)

slocki OTM, but that's about the ONLY complaint i have. it was wonderful.

― ryan (ryan), Friday, 8 October 2004 23:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Will I like it?

― Howard Wine (nordicskilla), Friday, 8 October 2004 23:57 (twenty-one years ago)

Will this come out here, does anyone think?

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 9 October 2004 00:21 (twenty-one years ago)

HERE?

― Howard Wine (nordicskilla), Saturday, 9 October 2004 02:00 (twenty-one years ago)

Special ILX screenings of new films would rule

― miloauckerman (miloauckerman), Saturday, 9 October 2004 02:07 (twenty-one years ago)

I am going to see this in...oh, an hour and a half.

― Gigantic [something] (nordicskilla), Saturday, 9 October 2004 02:08 (twenty-one years ago)

In Yoorope! I like American Football.

― Gravel Puzzleworth (Gregory Henry), Saturday, 9 October 2004 02:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I don't. It's rubbish.

― Gigantic [something] (nordicskilla), Saturday, 9 October 2004 02:10 (twenty-one years ago)

But I love Billy Bob! I even started a thread on the noise board about his official website:

http://www.billybobthornton.net/

― Gigantic [something] (nordicskilla), Saturday, 9 October 2004 02:11 (twenty-one years ago)

so many great things: the imperious Dallas-Carter cheerleaders, the almost tossed off shot in the final game of the Odessa big shots (and assholes) eating during the game with their trophy wives, that shot of the last play where everyone is crowded around the ball (Was that real?!?)

nice that it not only hints at the dark side, shows that the town is destructively obsessed with football, but also asks WHY and empathizes with even the most unlikeable characters. there is deep despair in this film--which makes the stakes of the final game more important than any super bowl.

i know a lot of people will pronounce a lot of it to be cliche, but some cliches are real. i knew a star player who blew out his knee senior year, and i knew kids whose fathers were completely psycho like McGraw was. i often wonder about what happened to those star players i knew and played against, what happened in the rest of their life, if that's all their life amounted to, and i think the film gets at this feeling in a pretty powerful way.

― ryan (ryan), Saturday, 9 October 2004 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

tim mcgraw was really good

― s1ocki (slutsky), Saturday, 9 October 2004 03:14 (twenty-one years ago)

OH...FANTASTIC film. I stand corrected!

― Gigantic [something] (nordicskilla), Saturday, 9 October 2004 06:14 (twenty-one years ago)

the whole playoffs section seemed to be done on powerpoint

haha! yes!

― Gigantic [something] (nordicskilla), Saturday, 9 October 2004 07:38 (twenty-one years ago)

This will probably make my top five for this year.

― Gigantic [something] (nordicskilla), Sunday, 10 October 2004 18:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Adam, change your name: I keep thinking you are Kenan.

― jaymc (jaymc), Sunday, 10 October 2004 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

My big big Adam.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 10 October 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Okay!

― Ratchet (nordicskilla), Sunday, 10 October 2004 21:07 (twenty-one years ago)

This was good, but slocki OTM about needing more player-dynamics and less football, the team/friendship/PERFECT payoff seemed kind of flat since there hadn't been a lot of change in the people over the movie.

Some fantastic shots - I loved that montage of Permian, the stadium and football gear before the first game. Billy Bob Thornton, of course, can do no wrong.

This is destined to go down in the father-son film pantheon, ala Field of Dreams, for when McGraw hugs his son at the end if nothing else.

Two things that bothered me more than they should have-
one of the HS quarterbacks wore an anti-concussion helmet with the funny facemask (think Peyton Manning), which weren't around until recently. Did they use real footage from the '88 games or from recent games?

the race angle, singling out the black referee for the bad call, really making the Dallas Carter kids into bad guys. I understand that the racial issues exist and that exact thing w/ the ref probably happened, but I didn't feel like they were handled as well as they could have been.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 11 October 2004 23:40 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno if Richard Linklater (who was set to direct this a few years ago) could have done better, but I wish he had been given the chance.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Monday, 11 October 2004 23:41 (twenty-one years ago)

four months pass...

Fantastic movie. Billy Bob perfect. Tim McGraw!???! Amazing! I love how the stadium is like the only thing that comes up out of the desert.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 9 March 2005 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

the tv show's generic middle-aged coach just can't compete with Billy Bob.

― milo z (mlp), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 00:07 (nineteen years ago)

but the red head is sexiest man in tv on months, i want to touch his penis

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 00:39 (nineteen years ago)

haha i can't believe there's a show about this - my dad almost didn't even see the movie: "i lived through that stuff for years - i don't know why i'd want to spend another hour and a half on it"

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 00:48 (nineteen years ago)

did you note the hot dude, tracer

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 00:51 (nineteen years ago)

i don't live in the US anymore anthony. the only hot dude i see on TV is jeremy paxman

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 00:53 (nineteen years ago)

I don't even know who you're talking about. Who had red hair? The "Good friends livin' large in Texas" kid with long hair?

I thought it was funny that they didn't even bother to go with the source material, choosing to rip off Varsity Blues instead.

― milo z (mlp), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 00:55 (nineteen years ago)

OH I CAN'T WAIT FOR THEM EVERY WEEK FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

― Butt Dickass (Dick Butkus), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 00:59 (nineteen years ago)

sexy red haired men? WHY DID I MISS THIS SHOW?

― mts (theoreticalgirl), Wednesday, 4 October 2006 03:05 (nineteen years ago)

ten years pass...

What Carter Lost, the new-ish 30 For 30 about the unbelievable true story of the all black team from Dallas who were the big game opponents in the FNL film is AMAZING. I teared up a little at the end.

― to fly across the city and find Aerosmith's car (C. Grisso/McCain), Friday, 25 August 2017 08:21 (eight years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.